The GVARC held Field Day at the Green Valley Fire District Headquarter building meeting room next to Fire Station 153 on the SE Corner of Camino del Sol and Camino Encanto in Green Valley June 27th and 28th. Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC Saturday and ending at 1800 UTC Sunday. We operated the full 24 hours using batteries and solar power, using two stations.
John Mitchell AC7JM submitted the summary sheet and the log electronically.
Supporting documents mailed on Monday included:
You’d never have thought a job that big could come together that fast.
Sure there was some pre planning, but not much. A few little do-dads here, a run to someone’s house to pick up a few parts there, but it’s not as if we were planning the Normandy invasion. Gene knew what was supposed to go where. He might have shared it with Omar, but the fact is that hardly anyone, including those of us who had spent time with him that week, knew what was planned in advance. It didn’t seem to matter. We knew where to show up, and some even knew when. That’s all it took
At the designated time, or thereabouts, on Friday, June 23d, several people arrived at the firehouse, at about 5:30, and went to work. They didn’t know in advance what their job was. Had they known, the job would have gone much slower. They knew antennas were going to have to go up, so they put them up. That’s all there was to it. It was as easy as inserting tab A into slot B.
Before you knew it, it was almost 9:00! If you happened to be in the parking lot, you looked up and saw antennae everywhere. There were lines running here and there. Clever wooden braces held the antennae up. The size of the project, and the speed with which it came together was incredible. It was beautiful piece of choreography, and nobody choreographed it. It just happened.
By this time, it was getting dark, and after all, this is Green Valley. The SWR meters, the tuners, and the flotsam and jetsam of amateur radioland, all went home with their Mommies and Daddies, for tomorrow was the Field Day Picnic.
On Saturday, June 24th, the beat went on as if it had never stopped. People came in. They were not told in advance what to do. They weren’t really told what WHAT was, they just did it. There was a sort of schedule of who should operate the radios, and when, but that lasted a matter of minutes. Who knew that there would be three radios? Who cared? People showed up, they sat down and began operating. When somebody got up, somebody else sat down. This went on all day. It couldn’t have gone any more smoothly. Well…Murphy was there, with his law. We had someone fall down a cliff..but he got up.
What pre planning there was was done meticulously. It went without a hitch.
CCS Bob (Roquet) had taken the planning of the food and drink on, and he did an absolutely magnificent job. From lunch, shortly after the radios began to hum, for the rest of Saturday night, and Sunday till noon, there was plenty of food and drink. It seemed so effortless that you knew Bob had put plenty of effort into it.
What does one say when he makes a contact? Here I am, talking about the wonderful lack of planning, and mentioning the planning. Anyway, Lloyd had taken the time to prepare cheat sheets. Scripts. They were available near the radios. Those operators familiar with contesting, were of great help. If, by some chance, one found ones self in front of a mike, it was not difficult to know what to say. Of course, once you said it, you might wonder what to do when the other operator answered, but there were forms available at each radio on which to write down the information, and computers, with a program into which one could enter data. To use them was a bit more complicated, but not that difficult. At first, only John Mitchell knew how to use the program, but it wasn’t long before anyone who wanted to know, learned. John would show George, who would show Bob, and on and on.
All we knew was that we were on the team. The rest came easily.
People just kept coming. The night shift arrived, with Bob Newkirk, a wonderful CW operator, and Neil, N1LS, who just showed up out of nowhere and proved to be an invaluable asset. At 3, Dick Palmer, the first of the early morning shift, arrived. Then came Frank Cadel, then Linda and I, and before long, we were in full swing again.
Just as we were getting hungry, Dee Gross came in with two trays of steaming sticky buns. She’d removed all the calories. They were delicious.
At 11:00 sharp, the field day ended. By then, it was hot. The fire department had been kind enough to allow us the use of its great facility, but the deal was, that it had to be returned to them in the same condition we found it.
It took us half an hour to get those antennae down! It could have taken longer, but the wrench Gene dropped on Bob’s head, didn’t hurt him. They couldn’t have done it any faster at Daytona. Again, there was nothing pre planned, it just happened. So fast it couldn’t have been planned. We knew what we did to put it up; we just ran the film in reverse, while Ann Birch and Linda Epstein took care of business inside. By the time we had the hardware down from the outside of the building. The ladies had the inside ready for inspection. Frank had some cold water. Gene called a short meeting to order, and we’re ready for next year.
As a matter of fact, we can’t wait.
Bob AD7FQ